Families of victims in church building collapse urged to sue owner, contractor

The Lands and Natural Resources Minister has urged the families of persons who have fallen victim to the collapse of a church building at Akim Batabi in the Eastern Region to seek legal redress.

Kweku Asumah Kyeremeh told Joy News in an interview that a civil suit can be brought against the contractor of the building and its owner.

Mr Kyeremeh further said the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) must intensify its regulatory and monitoring roles across the country.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the Akyem Batabi church collapse has climbed to 10, local reporter Kenneth Oduro, who works with Akyemansa FM in the Eastern Region, has reported.

According to him, the 10 bodies were among 17 victims who have been pulled out of the rubble so far.

The other seven survived with injuries.

The dead victims are made up of eight women and two men, Kenneth Oduro told Kofi Oppong Asamoah on ClassFM's mid-day news 12 Live on Wednesday, 21 October 2020.

Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive of Asene Manso Akroso, Mr Alex Inkoom, has said his District Engineer revealed to him only on Tuesday, 20 October 2020, just hours after the collapse of the three-storey church at Akyem Batabi that he (the Engineer) had warned the church of the looming danger two weeks earlier after passing through the area.

According to the DCE, the District Engineer told him that he warned the church members and leaders during that visit that the structural integrity and engineering of the building, which has intermittently been under construction since 1994, was dangerous.

The church members, according to the DCE, retorted that they believed in God to protect them and also expressed faith that so far as they had Prophet Akoa Isaac as their spiritual leader, they were more than safe